A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

Stirrings of Revolt 585

The celebrated Niccolo Paganini in concert, early nineteenth

century.

concert tours and traveling by train. No one was more popular than the Ital­
ian composer and violinist Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840). Paganini’s per­
formances, the musical effects he produced, and his frenzied appearance
suggested to one observer that he was engaging in witchcraft. Music also
assumed a greater role in private life. Not only did more people play the
piano, but concerts in middle-class homes became common.

Stirrings of Revolt

The Congress of Vienna resembled the Dutch boy gamely trying to dam
the deluge by plugging up the holes in the dike with his fingers. During the
first half of the century, virtually every country in Europe experienced a
confrontation between the old political order, represented by the Congress
of Vienna, and nascent liberalism.
In France and the German states, liberal bourgeois demanded political
rights for a wider number of people. Newspapers and political pamphlets
deftly sidestepped the heavy hand of censorship to challenge the restored
prerogatives of conservative regimes. In Britain, middle-class spokesmen
confronted conservatives and what conservatism’s enemies referred to as
“Old Corruption,” a political system based upon the patronage and influence
of wealthy landowners. On the continent, the middle classes clamored for
constitutions.